Review Roundup: Silent Hill: Townfall — What Critics Are Saying
Konami's Silent Hill spin-off from Screen Burn arrived this week. Critics love its atmosphere and puzzles, but are split on stealth and combat.
A note before we begin: HotGameNews staff have not played Silent Hill: Townfall. This is a roundup of published reviews and aggregate scores, not our own hands-on review. The game launched September 24, 2026, so the numbers below are early.
The scores. Silent Hill: Townfall, developed by Screen Burn and published by Konami for PlayStation 5 and PC, holds a Metascore of 81 (“Generally Favorable”) from 73 critic reviews on Metacritic. The split is 79 percent positive, 21 percent mixed and no negative reviews. OpenCritic’s listing shows a matching 81. Players are more lukewarm: the user score is 7.3 out of 10 (“Mixed or Average”) from 324 ratings, with 63 percent positive and 20 percent negative.
What critics love. The praise is about mood and puzzle design. Radio Times scored it 100, calling it “a stunning spin-off for the series” with “creative puzzles to unravel and heaps of analogue nostalgia.” TechRadar described the art direction as “superb,” according to Metacritic’s summary.
The complaints. The weaknesses are consistent across reviews. TechRadar flagged “forgettable monster designs and stiff facial animations.” Another outlet criticized the “trial-and-error stealth” that “becomes an obstacle” to enjoying the experience. Player reviews on Metacritic echo the same theme, with one summing it up as “combat and stealth are pathetic, the story, atmosphere and puzzles are incredible.” Another player called it “an underrated gem,” so opinion is far from uniform, and some negative reviews question whether the game deserves the Silent Hill name.
How to read it. With 21 percent of critics landing on mixed and a noticeably lower user score, this looks like a game whose strengths are unusually strong and whose weaknesses are equally clear. If you play Silent Hill for atmosphere, story and puzzles, the early consensus favors you. If you want polished combat or stealth, reviewers are warning you.
The bottom line. An 81 from critics makes Townfall a solid, if not spectacular, addition to the series, with the reviews dividing along a familiar line: praise for the atmospheric spine, frustration with the mechanics stacked on top of it.
Scores reflect Metacritic and OpenCritic at time of writing and are likely to shift as more reviews are added.